Technical Field
The subject matter described herein relates to content searching on devices.
Description of Related Art
Digital entertainment on television today is not limited to a satellite or cable set top box to watch movies or television (TV) shows. A host of alternatives called over-the-top (OTT) video streaming devices (e.g., Apple TV®, Roku®, Amazon Fire® TV, etc.) or game consoles (e.g., Microsoft® Xbox®, Sony® PlayStation®, etc.) are available to stream content on demand via an Internet connection to a TV. Each of these devices may execute one or more applications (e.g., Netflix®, Amazon Prime® Video, iTunes®, etc.) from different providers with a variety of content—some exclusive and some common across platforms. These devices are connected to the TV directly or via an AVR (audio-video receiver).
The connected devices provide a user interface on the TV screen that can be controlled using a remote control with the user sitting at some distance from the TV screen (e.g., 10 ft).
Each of the devices that provide content to a TV enables users to search for content. For example, a user may use a keypad on a remote control to type in characters of one or more search terms to submit to a content-providing device, and the content-providing device may execute a search based on the entered search terms. However, such a search is usually limited and narrow because each content-providing device focuses on its own content providers, and their individual database may not be large. Moreover, each content-providing device has a different way of searching the content, such as using voice search, text search, phone apps, web-based search, etc.